Chapter 1, Segment 3: Unity
Sadow recognized the black cloak worn by the Augmented cyborg about to fry the giant alien and quickly pulled out one of his custom Desert Eagles, firing a single round into the cyborg's shoulder. The bullet didn't harm him but it addled him enough for the big guy to get a swing in and knock him into the air. While in midair, however, the cyborg activated some sort of jump-jet technology in his metallic boots and soared through the air, aiming a hard punch straight into the alien's jaw and sending the beast whirling back into the docking bay and off the street they were in outside. Landing in front of a similar, more young and "human" cyborg, the machine-behemoth scanned him "Shitty hardware, apart from some rather illegal attachments." ---- Axel saw fit to add the young other cyborg to the list of souls being sent to Lord Bast this evening. His metallic left hand transforming itself into a Vyral-Net Scattergun, he took aim and fired a green energy-based net at the cyborg which would increasingly shrink as it wraps around him, eventually crushing him. If anything, it would immobilize him long enough to finish him off. In the meantime, his Japanese partner, Kiriko Murugama, reached into his cloak pocket inside the inner lining, pulling out a small wind-up toy bird as well as a laser-pointer pen. He aimed the pen at the head of the Eckari after winding up the toy bird. It took off from his hand and soared toward the beast of a man's head, giving a small explosion on impact and knocking him back but otherwise having no effect. Kiriko would have to do better. More of a high-impact figure. He reached into a large leather satchel attached to his utility belt, pulling out a single grenade filled with explosive Kejiri sand from the planet Ruuna, homeworld of the Ruun. Unholstering a side pistol decorated with childish "bang" symbols on it, he placed the grenade inside it and took careful, precise aim with the aid of his eye-mounted retinal enhancer. Syncing the grenade launcher with the enhancer, he was able to now fire a guided grenade at this hulking monstrosity and put an end to his rampage then and there. Smirking, he fired and the grenade took flight. Conspiracy Unveiled and Death God Angered ---- Zexeos Arra hissed in confusion. Where had all these people come from? Some augged-up guy, a pink-haired lady, and a dude with white hair in PJ’s?! And stealing her fighting thunder? How dare they. As the beast was distracted, she ran back towards her elf customers. “You guys need to get out, NOW!” She said, shoving them both towards the door, being mindful of the dark one’s weapon. Her heart felt like it was going to burst through her chest! People were dying! Her hands trembled as she guided the duo towards the door, away from the fight. What was going on in this place? ---- Fire Shade stood where he was as what he guessed was one of those Aug-fanatics started to attack the giant, to no avail, like everything else that seemed to be thrown at the behemoth. He couldn’t risk entering the fray, as even one hit from the giant would splatter his brains all over the pavement, a fate he’d rather avoid. An Aug could handle the direct fighting, all he would need is for his target to be weakened. A second Aug entered the fray, and deflected a dumpster with a single swat of the hand. Then, the new Aug triggered a sonic assault that brought even the lumbering mass to its knees. He himself had to cover his ears, the ringing was obnoxious and made his whole body ache. Once that giant was brought low, the sonic-using Aug latched onto its neck. He had to question what he had missed, was there a weak spot there he never knew about? That would be a question for another day. He’d get his answer later after he took his real target to his employer. Before he could even react, the cyborg took a bullet to the shoulder and had to disengage his target. Once the bullet hit, which Shade could be sure it had despite the lack of reaction, the titanic, rage fueled terror somehow managed to knock him skyward delivering a deadly punch that no human could ever survive. After that, his attention on the Aug ceased, he needed to focus on a means to stop the giant. Much to the hired killer’s alarm however, the target was hit first by what he’d have to assume was a, apparently bird-shaped, grenade, followed shortly by a second blast, one that sent enough dust and shrapnel into the air to impede his sight of the behemoth itself, a precarious position for the lowly human that he was. Following the small vapor trail left behind, he made a note to make sure to find the shooter of whatever caused that second bomb. In the second he took his eyes off the explosion, a bit of concrete nicked him just above his left eye, causing a stream of crimson to descend and obscure his sight further. Finding the situation too absurd, he chose to find the one responsible for the explosions and end his life, after getting details on the technology itself of course. He took off, eshewing his secretive methods in favor of making a mad break for his new target, angry at being blind-sighted by a bit of rock and beaten to the punch by a hooded freak with a bomb fetish. ________________ Gecide ________________ Jareth watched as more and more entered the battle. This was getting crazy...But, Jareth was used to crazy. He took a quick leap backwards, away from the beast. As he landed, a loud shriek filled the air, causing him to get slightly dizzy. He quickly dampened his hearing, muffling the shrill noise until it was over. He shook his head, clearing it in just enough time to see a net flying towards him. His eyes narrowed and he raised his right hand into the air. He knew what that net was, and he didn't have enough time to dodge it. It took roughly ten seconds for the net to begin constricting, just enough time to do what needed to be done. Jareth's right hand began to glow a bright blue color just as the net hit him, hard. Jareth stood his ground as the net wrapped itself around him. The energy burned slightly, but not enough to truly faze him. His hand glowed an even darker blue as it began to emit a low whistling sound which began to crescendo. Three seconds had passed...Jareth could feel his hand vibrating as it reached full power. Four seconds left...His eye visors slid over his eyes as the energy from his hand caused gusts around him, blowing small bits of trash away from him. One second left... The energy was released from the Electromagnetic Pulse emmiter in his hand, sending out large shockwaves all around him. The net immediately powered down just as it began to constrict, becoming nothing more than a useless net. The giant creature grabbed it's head and stumbled, then fell to it's knees, then onto it's face. The second pulse from the EMP stretched even further, shutting down any and all vehicles around them that was not protected against an EMP. The third and final, most powerful pulse shot out, taking out three city block's worth of power. Any Aug caught in the EMP explosion immediately lost any augment that wasn't protected in a special Synth-Pro coating. Angelica's personal computer and Jareth's Augs were unharmed, due to the protective coating. Jareth lowered his hand and calmly removed the net, looking at the assailants and extending his arm blades. "Oh, you're in trouble now, friends." He said, his face showing no emotion. ~=~ The Genocide Brothers ~=~ "Whaddufuck was THAT?! That was so cool! It was like, whoosh! Then, boom! Then, NEEEERSCHREEEE!!!" Geno screamed loudly as the EMP went off. Geno bounced up and down happily, clapping his hands childishly. He looked around, then bounced back towards Cide, who was levelling his rifle at the hooded assassins. Cide glanced at Geno, then back to the cloaked men, his finger poised over the trigger. "Geno, you ruined your suit. That cost six hundred credits, you bastard." Cide said with a hiss. "Oh, c'mon now! That suit didn't suit me at all! Ha! See what I did there! Play on words are always funny! Now, what'cha gonna do about those guys up there, huh? You gonna shoot them? With your gun? Or your penis?" Geno asked, plopping down next to Cide, also looking at the cloaked men. "Geno, shut the fuck up." Cide said with a sigh. "Heh heh... Hey Cide, you sighed. AHAHAHA!!! Another play on words!! Man, I am on a roooll tonight! Might be because a certain SOMEONE hasn't posted in, like, forever!! Yeah, lookin' at you, fatty with the keyboard!" Geno yelled to the sky. "That's right... The fourth wall is still my bitch." ---- Sadow-sama The Haktu hybrid, Kor, widened her eyes in shock as a device on her wrist gave a low "brrr" of death before shorting out. The Eckari was freed from their control. Clenching her teeth, she pulled her Mantis-blade from the Catharsian's shoulder and barked an order to the junior field agent, Rei "Come on! We've gotta go! Echanu is free!" Rei looked absolutely terrified and, with speed only matched by her trembling weakness, she hurried to Kor's side as they both backed away to their small Interceptor-class Podship. Kor glared at Neif before swearing "This isn't over..." and boarding her ship with her smaller comrade. Neif raised a brow at them before picking up her second blaster and eyeing the chaos around the corner. From what that bug-bitch had said, this big man was under their control up until now. Neif checked her utility wristkit and, like the bug lady's, hers was out of commission. Seems someone let off an EMP. Just fucking perfect. ---- The cloaked cyborg stumbled a bit, his metallic body rocking from the EMP blast. However, he remained able to move due to the Synth-Pro coating under his reinforced armor body. He glared at the Augmented boy before giving his systems another scan. While fuzzy, the scan displayed his combat capabilities and he was impressed. Some actually expensive hardware. "I don't think I'm the one who needs to be worried-" He was cut off by the arrival of the local law enforcement. Turning to face them, he raised one of his wrists and fired a single, small missile at the oncoming speeders, blowing up one and sending the rest careening into nearby rubble. Kiriko noticed how his electronics had stopped working, making him effectively useless at this point. His communications headset, jumpjets, and most of his weaponry had been reduced to nothing. He'd left more of his synthetic toys at the Sanctuary. Climbing down a nearby fire-escape metal ladder, he walked past the aching Sadow as he started to try and crawl towards the cloaked figure "You bastard... What are you people after...?!" Kiriko stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face the white-haired mercenary "We are preachers of death, sent here to send the message of Lord Bast's greatness. Go to him, white-haired one, and enjoy the blissful gift of the void." At this, he retrieved a large sealed glass sphere of an oily-liquid and unscrewed the lid, pouring it all over Sadow. Retrieving a match, he lit it and flung it onto the mercenary after receiving a stinging "Fuck you." from him, watching as the mercenary danced about and burned in agony before him. His eventual silence satisfied Kiriko that he was dead and, turning, he moved on to more pressing matters. Axel turned as his left hand had transformed into a Flamethrower and, aiming it at the boy, he grinned through his mask in excitement at sending this Aug to a fiery death. Unfortunately, his partner yelled from a nearby alley "Retreat, Axel! Too much heat coming this way!" Axel, groaning at losing the chance to face this Aug tech-to-tech, transformed his hand back to normal and turned to leave via the alley with his partner. He hoped that he'd get the chance to do battle with that boy again someday. Until then, he and his partner needed to leave the planet. They didn't have enough firepower to take on an entire city's worth of police. ---- Earendur and Tamuríl did as the dark-skinned human ordered and entered the hallway leading into the business area of the docking bay, which has been completely evacuated of people at this point. Both were extremely distressed; first time on this planet and the area looked like a warzone. Tamuríl demanded "What is going on?! Who are these people?!" Earendur wondered if he needed to call upon his Kesol to get them all out of this, but... Bad things seemed to happen every time he did. ---- Zexeos Arra clenched her teeth as it sounded like bombshells going off outside. She thought she had heard police sirens but after a loud explosion and crashing sounds, they were silenced. Oh god... What the fuck was happening?! Was it because of these Elves?! When the dark one spoke up, she shook her head and shouted because of the ringing in her ears "I don't know! They could be terrorists... trying to get to you guys!" But they wouldn't. Arra may have just been a tour guide to these people, but that also meant not letting them get killed or kidnapped. Reaching into her satchel, she pulled out a .74 Cobalt handgun, standard-issue to people in her line of work. Cocking it and setting the safety off, she inched towards the door, ready to open it and investigate what was going on further. ---- Fire Shade stopped running as the EMP blasts went off. A low buzzing noise emanated from his ear-piece as he tried to restore functionality, to no avail. Stranded. That was the perfect word. A wanted man with no means to contact anyone for extraction, caught in the middle of a terrorist attack. Combined with his unsavory resume, he knew the odds were against him seeing the light of day ever again except through steel bars. He could already feel the cold, icy lump in his chest descend lower into his gut as he pondered his options: escape and try to catch the elf prince another day or use the chaos as cover, nab the prince and risk capture. Both options carried rather steep penalties. The first was a blow to his pride, which was already shattering with every passing minute, the second risked incarceration. I've gotta get out of here. With the port as damaged as it is, the prince isn't likely to go anywhere, beyond a posh hotel or something. I missed my chance today. He thought, with another part of him arguing that he gamble it all on success. After all, he doubted that his new employer would look favorably on a failure on his first mission. But getting caught would mean all his plans would go up in smoke almost overnight. Time running out, he knew he had to act quickly. Every second counted from the moment he willed his drained muscles to move. He had to escape, there was no value in even risking his freedom for a hefty payday. Passing up a client like the Gentleman was a huge blow, but being able to continue his work was far more important than a huge sum of money. At least by being ‘active’ in the crime world, he could, in time, find a job that could eclipse even the Gentleman’s promised reward. Escape. He had to get back to his bike, it was the only chance to get out before the police got there. The only route back to the reception area was locked, sealed shut and likely inoperable thanks to the EMP waves. He wiped the blood off of his face and tried to open his eye. No such luck. The blood that had dried had become too hard for the muscles to open. “Just perfect. Locked in a hellish landscape, no phone and my eye’s stuck shut. I’d ask if the day could be worse, but God’s been known to accept that as a personal challenge from me.” he told himself, almost wishing the day’s events had never been. Off to his right, Shade spotted a chainlink fence, one that beyond, laid the street. He could easily scale it, and in fact, aimed to do just that. Willing his body toward the fence with every ounce of self-control he could muster, he sprinted the entire way, the sound of sirens inching closer by the second. Reaching the fence, he began the short ascent over it, the fence clanging with every movement. After reaching the top, he chose to simply jump off it, landing on his feet and once more breaking into as quick a pace he could sustain to his bike. ____________________ Gecide ____________________ Jareth watched the two men escape, then sighed. No fun at all. He looked at the behemoth and stooped next to his head, scanning it carefully. Jareth looked at the monster's neck, then noticed the foreign object. Further scans revealed a transmitter. A small blade popped out of his index finger and he began tracing a thin circle around it. As he tried to push deeper, however, the blade simply stopped. "Damn, this thing is tough..." He mumbled to himself. He looked around, cycling through his view modes on his HUD. There were two white haired men, presumably brothers. A now crispy man who had worn a tacky red trenchcoat. Two elves, which was curious. A woman escorting the elves. A mystery man who was now taking his leave. Jareth decided that he should persue the two elves and the woman. The elves were definitely out of place. They most likely weren't the cause of this, but they may know something. Jareth stood and began sprinting towards the fleeing trio, using his advanced heat tracking vision augment to follow them. As he ran, he opened a link between he and Angelica. "Angelica, I'm following the two elves and woman. They seem...Suspicious." He huffed as he ran through the halls. "...Is this still...Jareth?" Angelica asked slowly, her voice shaking. "Yes, but don't worry. Matt's still fine, and he'll be back when I decide to sleep. Until then, I have to make sure we can get out of here safely. Move inside the building, but make it slowly. I have a ping on your location. Stay safe." Jareth said, then snapped off the coms. ~=~ The Genocide Brothers ~=~ The brothers watched as the duo fled. Geno groaned in frustration, then snapped his head to the retreating mystery man. He looked at Cide, poked his shoulder a couple of times, then pointed to him. Cide shook his head as he was disassembling his rifle and opening his briefcase, moving with the skill and precision of a trained killer. Geno grunted and flipped to a stand, darting off. "BRB, getting ready to be spontaneous!!" Geno yelled behind him as he jumped a chainlink fence in a single graceful jump. He saw the man pace towards a bike and grinned wolfishly. He picked up his sprint and looked around. Spotting an alleyway, he sprinted towards it and disappeared into the darkness. A few moments later, a large truck passed between the fleeing man and his bike. The seat of the bike was empty before the truck passed, however, when the truck revealed the bike once more, Geno was seated on it, hunched over the handlebars and making "vrooming" and "rrrrring" noises childishly. He leaned from side to side, pretending to drive the motorcycle. However, he leaned to one side a bit too much and nearly lost balance, the bike threatening to tip. Meanwhile, Cide had finished concealing his rifle in his suitcase by the time Geno jumped the fence. He knew Geno could take care of himself, but he still didn't like him being by himself. He was a man on the outside, but a child on the inside. Cide stood and started toward the fence, but stopped. He looked towards the now burnt man and took a hesitant step toward the corpse. Pity, he was a handsome one. He shook his head sadly and looked around. All that was left was the hulking behemoth and a young woman trying to sneak away, but failing miserably. Cide walked towards the behemoth, reaching into his suit with his free hand pulled out a knife. Upon reaching the creature, he knelt beside it and cut the palm of his hand and clenched it into a fist. The pain came swiftly, but it brought nothing but pleasure to Cide. He reopened his hand, blood having covered it fully. He gently placed his hand on the beast, then on the ground. He half walked, half crouched around the beast, dragging his bloody hand across the ground in a tight circle around it. As he completed the circle he stood and walked towards the spaceport, deciding to find out what was up with the elves, woman, and the Augmented man. Renewed Purpose Earendur was frightened out of his wits. He had not seen such catastrophe since his planet had been subjugated. But... that was it! An idea had spawned in the Elf's head as the group moved out of the building to find the local authorities and get protection. If the humans and other races in this galaxy could muster such power and might... They just might be enough for Xim. Quickly, however, Tamuríl spun around aimed her blaster at the dark hallway that they had emerged from. Someone was following them. As a Drow whose race lived in the subterranean, Tami's ears were more trained than Earendur's. The hum of the blaster coming to life was the only sound that could be heard by human ears, though Earendur began to hear it too; footsteps. Light, subtle... but there. ------- Awakening in time for the local authorities to be on the scene with news reporters, Sadow slowly inched his burnt body behind a nearby dumpster as they were setting a parameter. He needed time to heal, but he couldn't be found by the authorities. He looked around for a means of escape and saw a similarly white-haired man in a suit hiding nearby. Could he have been an Apostle like Sadow? No... Impossible. Charred and desperate as the man was going to get up to leave, he spoke to him a hushed voice due to his damaged and repairing vocal chords "Please... help me... Healing... Can't ex...plaaain... Must... Run... Can't... Caught..." ------- Neif hated this shit. Ship broke, cops a comin', and the only place to hide was inside the very docking bay building she had landed in. Which was likely surrounded by cops. She just had to land on Earth right in the very docking bay that this shit was going to go down in. Speaking to herself, she uttered aloud in a sarcastic tone "Let's tempt fate a second; can this day get any worse?!" She spoke the last sentence with a wide grin before sinking back to her previous look of annoyance. However, she could hear something upstairs. Movement. A low hum of a blaster. Looking around, she found an inconspicuous glass cup and set it against the wall gingerly with her ear to the bottom of it, listening in on the chatter upstairs. ------- Zexeos ------- Arra was freaking out but the sounds of sirens and the fact that they weren't being followed up with the sounds of defeaning explosions comforted her. Suddenly, however, they stopped dead in their tracks before they could make their way outside. The dark Elf was aiming her blaster at the hallway they emerged from. Oh god... Were they being followed?! Surely this Elf could take on any that were following them, right?! Or maybe it was the cops, trying to secure the building! Taking a gulp, she had the Elf noble guy stand behind her while readying her gun to support the bodyguard. ------ Firegod ------